a cheap DIY place for plants.

sanford says this part of the yard is UGLY, mom and dad!

we have to agree, so we decided to do something about it!

we don't really have a back yard so much as a big, covered concrete area that is used for storage of things. and recently, because of all the plants we bough, a lot of the plants ended up sitting back there until we could find a place to plant them. we spend a little over $10 at home depot on a bunch of cinder blocks, and combined them with a couple pieces of lumber that were left by the last ownders of the house (plus some ol' fashioned sweeping) and voila!

it's still got a long way to go - we have plans to update this space to make it more open and airy and green - but in the meantime, we have an organized place to incubate plants until we plant them!

it's especially great for plants that like morning sun (which it gets lot of, below) but like shade otherwise.

neighbors are coming : a little privacy please!

so, the house next door is in escrow! this is absolutely fantastic because when we first moved in, it had been foreclosed but the homeowners were still living there. and it was, to put it gently, a total dump. since then, it has been flipped by investors and put on the market.

anyway, the sliding door in the kitchen faces the house next door, and more specifically, directly into the two bedrooms (sorry for the dark photos, we did this little project at night!):

we hadn't put up curtains yet, because i always felt curtains would be weird here in the kitchen. plus, we really love how much nice sunlight we get in the kitchen, and didn't want to lose that. however, just with the real estate agent, new homebuyers and various inspectors stopping by the past few days, we knew we had to do something!

we wanted something that was a quick and temporary solution. we eventually want to put in a wood fence up against that chainlink (it's on the neighbors side, so we can't touch it) - probably with some tall plants for additional privacy - but don't have the time to do so before the neighbors would move in.

after a bit of thought, we decided to do the same thing we did to those bathroom windows when we first moved in. the artscape etched glass window film that we got from home depot last time was so easy to install, and has held up really well to the humidity and direct afternoon sunlight of the bathroom.

we bought the 36x72 roll, and it was perfect (we needed 66 inches total). we did a stretch across the middle, that lands just a bit above eye level. it took all of half an hour to measure, cut and install. and i think it looks great! and while it's a bit modern for our craftsman home, the whole kitchen is kind of modern and will eventually be redone with wood-framed french doors. a view from the outside:

we didn't block out the entire door because it is still nice to be able to see outside if necessary, plus sanford loves spending his afternoons looking out the door:

lookit that booty!

and who are we to deny him that pleasure?